The origin of polyhedral D&D dice

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I didn't know this. From an interview with Gygax:
Q. As far as you know, what was the basic evolution of polyhedral dice? If they existed prior to the creation of Dungeons & Dragons, what were they used for?

To the best of my knowledge I introduced them to gaming, en masse, with D&D in 1974. I found sets of the five platonic solids for sale in a school supply catalog back in 1972, and of course ordered them, used them in creating the D&D game.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Polyhedral Dice were first recorded by the Pythagoreans, and they called these the "Dice of the Gods". (referring to what we now know as the Platonic Solids)

MW (Author: Divinity Dice)
4:23 PM, March 11, 2008
Zachary Drake said…
Yes, the pythagoreans knew about these shapes, but did they use them for gaming?

Googling "divinity dice" reveals some talk about using platonic solid dice for purposes of divination, but that's different than for gaming.

Apparently, the Romans did use 20-sided dice for gaming. So Gygax can't claim to be entirely original. Dungeons & Dragons and its descendants are certainly responsible for their modern popularity.
11:55 PM, March 11, 2008
Anonymous said…
Yeah, as you know, I use one of THOSE 20-siders as my gaming and randomness lj-icon.

I need to find the ancient source for this "dice of the gods" turn of phrase though.
6:09 AM, March 12, 2008
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